Prime Minister Mark Carney is wrapping up his nine-day trip around the world — a tour aimed at drumming up investment abroad that has attracted some cross-partisan criticism.
Carney is set to depart Wednesday from Switzerland, where he attended the World Economic Forum and delivered a widely praised speech warning that middle powers must band together as larger ones try to pressure them through economic coercion.
He was expected to meet with investors and attend a lunch with other national leaders before heading home to Ottawa Wednesday evening.
Carney started his trip in Beijing, where he clinched a deal to get China to lower agricultural tariffs in exchange for opening some market access for Chinese electric vehicles.
International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu told reporters in Davos that, soon after its election last year, the Carney government set to work on long-lasting trade disputes with China — work that is now paying off.
Sidhu said that when he first met with his Chinese counterpart in June, the Joint Economic and Trade Commission between the two countries had been sitting dormant for eight full years. The two countries were unable to have any meaningful dialogue on trade challenges. he said.
"The first thing we did was getting that going, and you saw the results of that last week in China," Sidhu said.
"We unlocked opportunity for over $7 billion in agricultural goods. Our first shipment of beef is out there, first shipment of canola is out there. Of course, other opportunities in energy storage, clean tech, EVs as well."
After Beijing, Carney went on to Qatar seeking investments in major projects and promising to improve "people-to-people" cultural ties by expanding direct flights between the two countries.
In his own speech to the WEF in Davos on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump boasted about his administration's actions and accused Carney of being insufficiently "grateful" for U.S. protection.
While world leaders walk the streets of Davos freely and can practically bump into each other, Carney and Trump will be passing ships in the night, with Trump arriving just as Carney was preparing to return to Canada.
Carney's trip has drawn criticism from both Conservatives and Liberals, who question his government's deals with countries that have dubious human rights records and his outreach to members of the global power elite in Davos.
At the World Economic Forum, Carney unveiled his foreign policy vision to the world, saying the old rules-based world order is dead.
"If you are not at the table, you are on the menu," he said.
Carney did not cite Trump or the United States' tariff policy explicitly during the speech, but it was widely understood to single out Trump's effect on geopolitics and trade.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
